Telling a client that their scope changes, delays, or decisions are affecting your margin is one of the more delicate messages in client communication — accurate, but easy to phrase in a way that reads as an accusation rather than a status update.
"Chip away at" can help here, but only if the sentence is built around the pattern, not around the client.
The instinct to avoid: making it about their behavior
The natural first draft of this kind of message often puts the client's behavior or decisions at the center of the sentence, which almost always reads as blame — even when the underlying observation is accurate and the writer didn't intend an accusatory tone.
Accusatory (avoid): "The client's behavior is undermining our entire margin model."
That sentence makes two mistakes at once: it names the client's "behavior" as the subject, and it uses "undermining," a word that implies deliberate or structural damage. Read from the client's side, it sounds like an accusation of bad faith, not a factual observation about a pattern of scope changes.
The fix: move the subject off the client
The fix isn't to soften the underlying observation — the margin pressure is real, and it's fair to name it. The fix is to move the subject of the sentence off the client and onto the recurring pattern itself.
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Start learning for free →Client-safe (better): "Repeated scope changes appear to be chipping away at project margin."
Notice what changed. The subject is now "repeated scope changes" — a pattern, not a person or an organization. "Chipping away at" replaces "undermining" — gradual and incidental, not deliberate and structural. And "appear to be" adds a small hedge that keeps the sentence observational rather than definitive, which matters when you're describing an ongoing trend rather than a fully closed, quantified loss.
Why this reframing works
This isn't just softer language for its own sake — it's more accurate language, in most real cases. Scope changes usually aren't a client "attacking" your margin on purpose; they're a natural byproduct of a project evolving, decisions changing, or requirements getting clearer over time. Describing the actual mechanism — repeated scope changes, recurring delays, a pattern of late approvals — keeps the sentence honest about what's actually happening, without smuggling in a claim about intent that you probably can't support and don't actually believe.
Accusing the client or their behavior directly can damage the relationship even when the underlying observation is accurate — nobody responds well to being told their "behavior" is "undermining" something, even when the facts behind the claim are true. A well-hedged, issue-focused version preserves the relationship while still surfacing the real problem, which is usually the actual goal: getting the client to acknowledge the pattern and adjust, not putting them on the defensive.
The template generalizes: name the pattern, not the person; use "chip away at" rather than a stronger, intent-implying verb; and hedge appropriately when you're describing a trend rather than a closed, fully quantified loss.
Practice scenarios
Practice using chip away at in situations like:
- drafting a client email about margin pressure without sounding accusatory
- rewriting a first draft that accidentally names the client's "behavior"
- replacing an intent-implying verb like undermine with chip away at
- adding a hedge like "appears to be" when describing an ongoing trend
Useful practice phrases:
- "Repeated [scope changes] appear to be chipping away at [margin]."
- "This pattern is chipping away at [target], not the client themselves."
- "Let's move this off "the client's behavior" and onto the actual pattern."
- "We're not accusing anyone — we're naming what's happening."
Name the pattern, not the person, and the same facts stop sounding like blame.
The goal is acknowledgment, not defensiveness — phrasing decides which one you get.
Lyra Practice helps advanced non-native English professionals learn the nuance of high-value workplace expressions and practice using them in realistic scenarios, so their English sounds natural, precise, and senior at work. Try Lyra Practice.